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| Available March 26, 2014 |
Collects RAT QUEENS #1-5
Who are the Rat Queens? A pack of booze-guzzling, death-dealing battle maidens-for-hire, and they’re in the business of killing all god’s creatures for profit. It’s also a darkly comedic sass-and-sorcery series starring Hannah the Rockabilly Elven Mage, Violet the Hipster Dwarven Fighter, Dee the Atheist Human Cleric and Betty the Hippy Smidgen Thief. This modern spin on an old school genre is a violent monster-killing epic that is like Buffy meets Tank Girl in a Lord of the Rings world on crack!
Collecting the first five issues of the sold out hit series at the special introductory price of $9.99!
There aren't many things in comics that are a sure thing. Even the two biggest publishers offer a variety of titles that range from middling to marvelous but are tied to decades of canon and characters that have long been in the public psyche. If your book doesn't include the name Batman or X-Men good luck making a whimper on the sales chart. Quality books from independent publishers don't always push quite the same units each month but their books are vastly more creative from a passionate creator-owned point of view. Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch is the latest example of such artistic excellence from independent voices that is as close as you'll get to a sure thing in comics. This Wednesday, Image Comics releases the first five issues in a collection called Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery.
Sass and Sorcery is the perfect description for this band of beer-drinking maidens who are funny, sassy but also very capable medieval warriors who genuinely care for one another. You can't help but root for them as they unravel a mystery, fight monsters and wreak general havoc in this Dudgeon and Dragons-style adventure series. The publisher's description is pretty dead-on because it's set in a Lord of the Rings-type world with a group of women - a hobbit, an elf, a dwarf, and a human - that are a combination of foul-mouthed Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena the Warrior Princess.
It has very modern sensibilities with sarcastic humor and balanced with some bloody violent encounters. Wiebe's storytelling flows naturally and continually builds to bigger moments but also finds pockets of concise heartfelt interactions between the maidens that endears them to readers. They are cocky but affable and caring to each other. You also won't find better sequential art in all of comics than on Queens. Upchurch, besides establishing layouts that make sense, has an incredible touch expressing so much from facial expressions of the characters that they are in concert with Wiebe's words perfectly. The battles in particular stand out because while there is a frenzy of action it isn't mashed incomprehensibly from panel to panel. Issue #5 for example displays a clear and cinematic fight sequence that crisply flows from one move to the next. You should buy this trade for that issue alone.
Rarely does a comic garner such praise. How many Sagas are there on the market? Not enough obviously but Rat Queens makes a strong case to be considered in that league. It's wickedly funny, beautifully drawn and most of all entertaining. Everything a comic book reader would want in a comic. Get yours this week.
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